


For Want of a Friend

by allislaughter



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grim Reapers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 06:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5774413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allislaughter/pseuds/allislaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which a young Reaper decides to manipulate the system in order to gain a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of a Friend

**Author's Note:**

> So me and some other nerds came up with a Paranatural Reaper AU and I wrote a story based on one of the ideas we had for it. I don't know if I'll write more for it or not, but if I do, it'll probably just be a bunch of short story scenes instead a full chapter fic, but we'll see.

Sometimes being a Reaper was a bit… Well, grim, for starters. Considering all the souls of the unfortunate he had to collect and take to the afterlife all the time, the strict older Reapers and spirits they worked with, the fact the other Reapers his age were usually busy and so they hardly got the chance to hang out…

It's not that he hated the job. It had its fun parts, namely the conversations he had with the souls he'd collect on the way to their afterlives, the times they didn't try to run at least. He wouldn't mind having more of that, though, for longer periods of time. The moments between meeting the newly deceased and sending them on their way were fleeting, and it's hard to maintain a friendship with someone you know for a few subjective minutes.

Reaper Ed Burger, child class, would do any number of things in order to have a friend he could keep instead of reap for once.

"Muse," he said, glancing up at the large monkey spirit acting as his current handler. "What happens if we _don't_ bring souls to their respective afterlives right away?"

"Depends what you mean by 'right away,'" Muse answered. "Mostly they stick around as a ghost in a miserable existence being unable to do anything cool and eventually fading if they don't find some way to stick around or let you reapers do your job."

"So they wouldn't be happy," Ed reiterated.

" _No one_ would be happy with that," Muse clarified. "Do you know the amount of boring paperwork we'd have to go through explaining just why the soul didn't go where it belongs when it should of? I know some of the _other_ spirit handlers get angry when their reapers mess up, but that's not even the whole of it. Speaking of angry birds..."

"Hmm?" Ed looked over, seeing another spirit, a glowing bird in a cage with a red cloak over the rest of his body, as he marched towards them.

"Lucy!" Muse grinned, holding his hand up for a hi-five. "How'd your reaper mess up this time?"

"It's Lucifer," he corrected, ignoring the hand. "And you would not _believe_ how badly Richard did his job this time. Not _only_ did he scare off the soul he had intended to collect, but in the chase, the ghost scared a driver who almost _crashed into a child_. Had Mina Zarei not intervened… Ah, but, of course, as the child's guardian angel, she then _bound Richard to him_ on _top_ of us not finding the wayward soul."

"Bound the who to the wha?" Ed asked.

"Oh, y'know," Muse shrugged, waving his hand in a so-so fashion. "Happens when some sap should have died doing something but only didn't since it wasn't actually their time, usually due to the Reapers messing up somehow. The human gets the ability to see us while still alive, but then we lose out from a Reaper getting stuck to them until it actually _is_ their time."

"And the child is a _child_!" Lucifer scoffed. "Richard will be stuck with him for _years_ to come, and _objective_ years at that! I must go- I still have to report these things. Honestly, losing a soul and being bound to a _child_ , I cannot imagine how anyone could cause a greater error at one time than this."

"See ya, Lucy," Muse smirked. As soon as Lucifer stormed off, he looked back down at Ed. "So, anyway, kid-- Uh… Where'd you go?"

Reaper Ed Burger, child class, found one of the things he was willing to do to gain a friend to keep instead of reap, and now he merely had to manipulate the system to do it.

 

* * *

 

Max Puckett, certified 12-year-old, had no idea what to expect when his dad had his family move from the city to some town of Mayview with its two hills and lake in-between, but on the list of things he didn't expect he had a few choice things. One was his new home being a convenience store. Another was the weird sounds he thought he heard the night before on their first night there. It wouldn't surprise him at this point if they somehow moved into a haunted convenience store, and that was quickly making its way onto his list as well. But the most important thing he didn't expect was his own capacity to brush with death by texting and scooting and promptly falling over the ledge of the road to the pavement several feet below.

He did expect it to hurt though, and the accuracy of the pain was a small comfort that he somehow didn't die, though he continued to lie there, winded and with dark spots floating across his vision. Well, more like dark _wisps_ which was… y'know, weird, but he was too In Pain (tm) to care at the moment.

"Did it work?" someone asked near him.

"Did what work?" he asked back.

"It worked!" they cheered, and a moment later a face popped into his line of sight just as the dark wisps faded, of some blond kid with large, round glasses. "I think it did, at least. You don't _look_ dead."

"Why would I be dead?" Max groaned, pushing himself up. "Just because I fell like, what, ten feet?"

"Well, you know, I _am_ a Grim Reaper," the other kid shrugged. "Soooo, it's good you're not dead! Haha!"

Max paused and then squinted at the other kid and the weird dark green cloak he was wearing. "Is that supposed to be a joke?"

"Nope!" the kid grinned. "Reaper Ed Burger, here to… uh… Well, I can't use my usual spiel because, y'know… You're not dead! So instead I gets to stick with you until you do dead!"

"Are you trying to kill me through bad grammar?" Max scoffed. "If you're a Grim Reaper, then why are you so happy?"

Ed smiled. "Because reasons."

"...Okay. Question two: where's your scythe?"

"Oh, right here," Ed answered, and he fished around the pocket of his cloak only to produce…

Max flattened his brow. "That's a flipping paintbrush."

Ed shrugged and held the paintbrush in the air. He then literally drew in the air, making a blade out of the ink, and then stretched out the handle of the brush, and he beamed at Max's slack jaw and held the newly formed scythe aloft. "It's also a scythe!"

After a moment longer of silent staring, Max falls onto his back again. "I'm dreaming," he insisted. "I hit my head and am in a coma and this is all a weird dream."

"Wanna make it even weirder?" Ed asked.

"NO."

"Oh," Ed hummed. "In that case, don't look around you."

"What's that supposed to--?" Max looked around him. And he double taked. And tripled taked. "No way- What- What the heck…?"

"I _told_ you not to look," Ed chuckled. "You see them, right? All the spirits?"

"Those are spirits," Max said, staring with wide eyes at the- was that a glass cat with organs made up of other cats? What in the world is with those birds? Is that a giant frog with a kite wife? "So… Not only am I dreaming… But I literally fell into Wonderland."

"Eh," Ed shrugged and wiped away the ink blade and shorted the handle again to put away his paintbrush. "I'm pretty sure this place is called Mayview, but if you rearrange the letters and remove some and add seven more, you got Wonderland."

"I need to get home," Max blurted out, rushing to his feet and grabbing his almost forgotten scooter.

"Yeah, let's see your home!" Ed grinned.

"That wasn't an invitation," Max pointed out.

"But I already told you," Ed answered. "You didn't actually die but I showed up anyway, and so that means I'm stuck with you until you _do_ die. But now you can also see me and other Reapers and spirits and things."

"You know, when they say not to text and scoot, this isn't the consequence I think they have in mind," Max mumbled, getting onto his scooter and starting off.

Ed glided along with him at his side- really, what else should he expect- and shrugged. "Well, maybe that'll teach you better than to do that. I don't want you dying any time soon."

"Why not?" Max asked. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"But I always wanted a friend," Ed answered.

Max gave a sideways glance at Ed and the pout on his face, and he sighed and watched the road again. "Alright- since I can't get rid of you any time soon… Let's head home."

Max Puckett, certified 12-year-old, didn't know what to expect when he moved to Mayview, but meeting a "Grim" Reaper who wanted to be his friend was the top of the list of things he didn't expect.


End file.
